ÖODIUM OU rOTASSIUM I EDWAllD DIVEES. 4o 



quite one-sixth of the calculated quantity, and the mother- 

 liquor be left too poor in hyponitrite to be worth working up 

 as a source of silver hyponitrite. 



A modification of the method, which is equally successful 

 as to yield, is to dispense with the evaporation of the water 

 and precipitate the salt by absolute alcohol. The only precau- 

 tion to l)e taken is to hinder as much as possible the salt get- 

 ting attached to the walls of the vessel, and this for ol)vious 

 reasons. Very mucli alcohol is required, because of the very 

 large proportion of sodium hydroxide which is present. A few 

 drops of the solution are added to the alcohol in a flask and 

 at once violently shaken with it until thorough solidification 

 of the hyponitrite has occurred ; then gradually the rest of the 

 solution is poured in with good agitation. With abundance of 

 alcohol from the first and witli good mixing, very little of the 

 salt will remain in solution and very little adhere to the flask ; 

 with less alcohol at first, a material quantity of the salt is lost 

 by being kept in solution, for, though it is afterwards slowly 

 deposited, it is not tlien in a serviceal)le condition, and much 

 salt is liable to adhere to the flask, which can, indeed, be dis- 

 solved out in water and be reprecipitated by alcohol, but only 

 with verv great loss. 



The actioji of sodium chloride U2)0]i silver hyponitrite, 

 which will be described along with the other reactions of silver 

 hyponitrite (p. 52), is complex and quite unfit to furnish a 

 simple solution of sodium hyj^onitrite. Nevertheless the solution 

 obtainable by this action, charged as it is Avith sodium chloride 

 and containing, besides, some silver hyponitrite dissolved in it, 

 can be made to deposit its sodium hyponitrite by mixing it 

 with much absolute alcohol, and this constitutes Jackson's second 



